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Withdrawals as Tafe restructure bites

Stephanie Reynolds of High Wycombe has withdrawn from her Tafe course. Picture: David Baylis www.communitypix.com.au d450985

With the State Government announcing that there will be 230 Tafe admin jobs gone in a restructuring process designed to begin on April 11, 11 Tafe colleges will be reduced to five.

Ms Reynolds said a lot fewer people had enrolled in her course, which was a diploma in community services.

“I enrolled in the diploma this year at Tafe Midland and the fees were $176 every fortnight.”

She said it was challenging trying to study full-time with children and said it made things harder when many staff were lost in her section due to redundancies.

“I had to withdraw because I can’t afford that kind of expense and the teaching was already being affected because they did not have people to teach the face-to-face parts of the curriculum so they were using people who had only done online teaching before.

“It changed the way the curriculum was approached and made it harder to hand in assignments for different lecturers instead of the same one for the duration of the course,” she said.

Training and Workforce Development Minister Liza Harvey said the Government would appoint interim managers to look at the strategic plans and work out where to best place the workforce.

“Administration could be in two centres if required and we will offer voluntary redundancies,” she said.

Ms Harvey said the restructuring offered the opportunity for better collaboration between Tafes.

The SSTUWA vice-president Samantha Schofield said the union was concerned that $110 million had been stripped from the Tafe system in three years.

“We have seen course fees rise by 650 per cent in some areas in two years and as a consequence we have seen enrolments plummet,” she said.

“About $6 million has been cut from the Midland and Thornlie Polytechnics alone.”

Ms Reynolds has withdrawn from the course and hopes to to re-enrol in 2017.

“There is no way I can complete this course fulltime.

“I will have to do it through part-time study in the future,” she said.

Ms Reynolds wants to work with youth, aged care or the disabled after she completes her course.